TGN Focus: Don’t Go on a Topical Vacation

Nope, that title doesn’t contain a spelling error – I encourage a little bit of a tropical getaway if you can afford it, but a topical vacation is something I can’t stand behind. But I digress… and that’s the whole point of this TGN Focus installment! The key to getting noticed is staying focused!

“…there’s got to be something about The News

that aligns with our brains as viewers.”

This may seem like a funny question to ask, but have you ever wondered why ‘The News’ is the only really consistent format of television worldwide? Heck, it started when people were still going to theatres for their motion picture fix, so there’s got to be something about The News that aligns with our brains as viewers.

My answer to this question comes in the form of a bad pun (as always): “You can’t have News without something ‘new’!” As a society – I know, I’m getting deep here – we thrive off of the latest information and details about not only world events, but coverage of our favourite hobbies or professions. So let’s learn from that as YouTubers.

“…covering something that’s buzz-worthy is

generally a great way to get noticed”.

The Bandwagon Effect

Whenever a new game is about to launch or just launches, new channels tend to pop up out of nowhere and gather up a massive following very quickly. Why? Well the truth is that many of those channels have been around for months or even years going unnoticed until they started covering something more relevant. I like to call this phenomenon ‘The Bandwagon Effect’.

Creative, I know.

The lesson to learn here is that covering something that’s buzz-worthy is generally a great way to get noticed. Well, duh… right? But it takes more than just jumping onto anything that’s topical, and that’s what makes the real difference – now you have to separate yourself from that enormous crowd. In a nutshell, that means finding a niche and executing it well.

“Ask yourself though, how am I going to stand out?”

Imagine that you’re one of the thousands that’s chosen to release GTA V videos, in all honesty that’s not a bad choice because it’s developed quite the following. Ask yourself though, how am I going to stand out? Are you offering insightful tutorials? Do you know some secret glitches in the game? That stuff’s been done to death, unfortunately. Only a handful of channels with that content really tend to succeed when the market is so saturated with similar videos.

So our best advice would be to think twice about the kind of content you want to show, then get it out there by marketing to as many potential viewers as you can. With luck, you’ll break through and build a loyal viewership that will help to spread the word about your epic channel. Once you’ve done it successfully, you’ll find that repeating this process will have better returns every time. The hardest part is really just getting your foot in the door, and there are some very good keys to help with that part of the equation as well.